


Past Imperfect

by McParrot



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Mpreg, Young Jack, femfic fest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21800077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McParrot/pseuds/McParrot
Summary: Torchwood Fem Fic FestSummary: Kathy Swanson needs some help with an extraterrestrial problem and Jack Harkness is definitely not the person to call.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Past Imperfect

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Kathy Swanson, Tosh, Suzie, the boys are out of town and they have to fix an extraterrestrial problem on their own.  
> McParrot is putting all her fan fic on AO3  
> These pieces have not been updated or re-edited.  
> This piece was originally posted on LJ Nov1st 2011

Kathy leant against the wall and watched as first Suzie Costello, and then the new woman, Toshiko Sato looked through the hatch into the cell. Then the two women stood back, looked at each other and looked back into the cell again. 

‘Well,’ Suzie said as she backed away, ‘I can see why you didn’t want our boss involved.’  
Kathy grinned at her. ‘That is him, isn’t it?’  
‘It certainly appears to be.’  
‘Always been a bit of a cocky bastard then.’ The prisoner, a young man dressed in jeans and a tight tee was lounging back on the bench, posed so that his assets were on view for anyone peering through the hatch. ‘Looks like he likes it here.’  
‘Hmm,’ Suzie mused. ‘He must. Take that leather wrist strap off him and I bet he won’t be so happy.’ She gave Kathy a look. ‘You do realise that with that he can get out of there any time he likes don’t you?’  
No, Kathy hadn’t known that, but she was buggered if she was letting this woman know that she didn’t. What was the little thug doing just sitting there then?  
‘I wonder how he got it,’ Suzie muttered to herself. ‘I thought Time Agents were … I don’t know … older.’  
Sato looked from one of them to the other then peered back through the hatch. ‘Is that Jack?’ Her eyes were wide. ‘Really? He’s a lot younger.’ She looked back through the door hatch again. ‘Wow. He’s kinda cute.’  
Kathy was pleased to see that Suzie rolled her eyes nearly as hard as she did. ‘He’s about seventeen,’ Kathy reminded her.  
‘I can look can’t I?’ Sato said.

The three women entered the cell together. As the door opened the boy sat up and provided a dazzling display of teeth in a smile that obviously didn’t have the effect he was intending. ‘Oh,’ he pouted, blue eyes drooping. ‘Ladies?’  
Kathy and Suzie regarded him coldly, arms folded, feet set solidly on the concrete floor. Toshiko ran a scanner up and down his body. ‘Human,’ she announced, ‘mostly.’ They watched him preen. ‘Male.’ Toshiko whistled, thumped the thing and fiddled with the settings. The young man looked concerned. ‘Saturated in temporal energy but it’s at least 50% decayed. He’s been here for several weeks I’d say. Possibly longer.’ She pointed the scanner at the leather wrist strap he wore, ‘Different model than the one we’re familiar with but contemporaneous of that version. And,’ she pointed the scanner back at this body, and fiddled with the settings again. ‘No, that can’t be right.’ She shook the machine and looked up, a pained look on her face, ‘I know this is odd, but,’ she shook her head in wonder, ‘he appears to be pregnant.’  
That news shocked everyone in the room. ‘Gods,’ the prisoner lurched up and crashed back onto the bench, sliding back down as his legs gave out. ‘No. Oh no no no no no.’ His face blanched as white as the walls.  
Kathy stared at the kid having a panic attack on the bench, breath racing in and out in jerky gasps, and Sato waving her little box at him. ‘You’re fucking kidding me?’ she said. ‘You’re new. Are you sure you’re working that thing right?’  
‘It’s working just fine,’ Sato said crossly as Suzie grabbed it off her.  
‘He’s a bloke,’ Kathy said firmly. ‘I mean, I know you lot are Torchwood and weird and whacky is just in a day’s work. I was even happy to go along with this younger version of Captain Pain in the Arse somehow racing around the countryside and selling snake oil in the form of penis enhancements. Found that quite amusing actually, but this? Sorry no. I don’t do this. He can’t be pregnant. He’s a bloke.’  
The kid curled into a tight ball, head buried in his knees, a far cry from the cocky creature who’d greeted them when they walked in. Kathy was concerned by the gloating look Costello was giving him. Toshiko Sato just looked bewildered. ‘She read it right,’ Suzie said, ‘He’s pregnant. Foetus is human. Mostly. I won’t tell you the sex. Don’t want to ruin the surprise.’ She crouched by the bench. ‘Congratulations,’ she said in a false voice. She laid her hand on the kid’s head. It was a strangely intimate touch and he flinched. ‘You’re about six weeks gone. Assuming of course that male pregnancies work like female ones.’  
Kathy decided she needed to take some control of things. They were in her cells after all. ‘Okay.’ She crowded Suzie out of the way and took her place by the boy’s head. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked gently, because it was damn obvious that it wasn’t going to be Jack. The kid was still breathing like a train. ‘It’s all right,’ Kathy said automatically. She put a hand on his shoulder and could feel him trembling. ‘I think it’s time you told us who you are and what you’re doing here. And then we’re going to have to work out how to get you back to where you came from.’  
‘He’s got a working vortex manipulator,’ Suzie said. ‘That’s not going to be a problem.’  
‘I can’t,’ the kid said.  
‘You fucking have to,’ Suzie swore at him. ‘Don’t you get it you dipshit? I don’t know what you’re doing here or why you decided Cardiff 2007 was a good time to visit but you’re literally only a coincidence away from a paradox. Do you really not know that an older version of yourself is only three miles from here?’ Toshiko looked at her in horror. ‘You’ve been here for weeks. It is purely good luck that has stopped you running into yourself.’ His eyes had gone huge, shocky.  
‘I… I didn’t…’ he moaned. And then the kid was sick, all over Kathy’s shoes.

‘Right,’ Kathy said as she came out of the bathroom, her feet damp in shoes that were wet but clean. Suzie was leaning on the corridor wall waiting for her. It felt odd to be bare legged. Kathy had consigned her tights to the bin. ‘You’re posting bail. I want him out of here before someone else recognises him.’  
‘You could always say it was his cousin.’  
‘I can’t be bothered. Get him away. If he jumps bail, well Torchwood can afford it.’  
Suzie shrugged. ‘Penis enhancements? Really?’  
‘Yep. They actually work too apparently, but a couple too many people ended up at their doctors with schlongs down to their knees and we had to follow it up. Oh and he told the custody Sergeant his name was Phil McCracken.’  
Suzie roared with laughter ‘He doesn’t bloody change.’  
‘He’d better bloody jump bail,’ Kathy said, serious again, ‘I never want to see him again.’  
They headed back towards the cells where Toshiko had stayed with the prisoner. They passed through the door from the custody office and just before the cell door Kathy swung Suzie into the wall. She got in her face. ‘Let’s just spell this out shall we?’ She leant her arm across Suzie’s throat, Suzie could only nod. ‘I don’t care what sick hankie pankie you get up to out there with Captain Courageous, I know things, I’ve heard about you two, but that kid in there, that’s not him. Not yet. You look after him. You don’t just send him back to where he came from, you send him somewhere safe. Somewhere that will look after him properly.’ She leant harder just to make her point. Suzie glared back, her lips turning blue. ‘You got me?’  
Suzie’s eyes narrowed.  
‘I’ll be checking up with your newbie. I know nothing about where that boy is from or how he got here, or god forbid how he can be up the duff, but I can tell he’s in a mess and I know enough about these things to know he’s right on the edge. Kids that age with the whole world against them, well it goes one of two ways. They either drop through the cracks, surviving purely on animal instinct and end up bitter and dangerous. Really dangerous, pretty much animals,’ she bounced on the other woman’s larynx, ‘Or, sometimes, someone helps them out, right when they need it. Gives them strength and support and they come through as something like reasonable people, maybe even with a role model to try and live up to.’  
Suzie was visibly struggling for breath but she made no attempt to throw Kathy off. ‘Your boss,’ Kathy continued, ‘is a dangerous man and a real loose cannon. It scares me that he is loose in my city. I would much prefer to think that back when he was young and life was tough someone helped him out and showed him right from wrong.’ She let Suzie go and watched her gasp for air, her hand against her throat. ‘I am trusting you to see to it that that happens.’  
She stepped forward and unlocked the cell door. The kid, an achingly young and beautiful Jack Harkness was huddled, tearstained in the arms of Toshiko Sato.  
‘Okay young man,’ Kathy said brightly. ‘You can go. These ladies are going to take you away from here.’ Toshiko urged him up and he towered over her. Kathy paused at the door. ‘I’d say, don’t come back to Cardiff, but I know you won’t listen to me.’  
She couldn’t help but smile as she watched them walk off. ‘Good luck,’ she whispered.


End file.
